A few months later.

Rime pulled his hair up into a ponytail and grabbed up the shield off of the ground going over to the center of the ring "okay now attack me like you want to kill me, otherwise I'll knock you on your ass." Someone gasped from the stand and Rime rolled his eyes not even turning to look at whoever it was as he kept his attention on his opponent.

"Are you sure it's safe?" Empress Elmira asked in an unsure voice making Rime sigh.

"Of course it's safe, I'm holding a shield I'm not going to hurt you with this, even if I did by accident your husband would have my neck." Elmira shook her head and said that she meant if it was safe for him because she knew he wouldn't hurt her. "Yes I am safe, you've just begun learning to fight Elmira you can't hurt me just yet and even if you scratch me or something our resident healer is sitting right there."

He nodded to Cyra who was sitting in the stands with Princess Jenirus, who was sitting next to her showing as she showed her how to make a flower grow in just a glass of water. The Empress nodded and Rime smiled "okay so just attack me, say I'm trying to kill you and you have to defend yourself, what would you do?" Rime's eyes widened and he ducked as the sword came flying through the air straight for him.

"Okay fine that is one way to go but it is wrong and you could be killed in the next second if you had done that with an actual attacker." The Empress looked at him apologetically and shrugged, he picked up her sword and carried it back over to her placing it in her hands before he took a few steps back. " Okay now attack me by keeping your weapon in hand." The Empress broke into a run and tried to swing her sword but it was too heavy for her so it fell to the ground taking her with it and Rime had to bite back his laugh.

Her attendants ran into the ring and quickly helped her up dusting her off, Rime sighed and went to pick up the sword. "As much as you're royalty, when someone comes to attack you these attendants will not be there to pick you up when you fall because they'll be too busy running for their lives, so get it together." The Empress nodded and dusted off herself after she sent her attendants back to the stands.

"Can I get a different weapon, that is too heavy all it'll do is put me in more danger rather than help me."

Rime nodded "I get it, gimme a second and I'll see what I can get you." The Empress nodded and went to the stand so she could get some water while Rime made his way to a large stand that held different types of weapons on it and decided to grab the double sided scythe. The Empress say him going to the center of the ring and quickly ran over to him. Rime spun the scythe around and tossed it in the air.

He caught it back and then looked to Elmira "Okay so this here is a double bladed scythe, it is like fighting with a staff, which means it's going to be light and it will be easy for someone of your size to toss it around and do some real damage. Better yet you can split it in two and that will give you more options on how to take down your opponent, but of course you can't start off with the actual weapon so I'll have them make a practice version and we'll continue weapon training tomorrow."

Rime went quickly to the Royal blacksmith and placed his order before he came back "Okay in the meantime we'll do some simple exercises. In case your attacker shows his face before you can properly fight you need to be able to get away so you need to be able to run fast so all in all, you just need to catch me." Rime took off running soon as he finished the sentence and the Empress watched him in shock for a minute before she ran after him.

They spent the rest of the hour doing that and it was safe to say that Elmira never caught Rime, even when obstacles were placed in front of him in order to slow him down. The Empress collapsed on the ground trying to take in air as she sweated bullets and Rime stood a ways away from her barely out of breath. He watched as he attendants rushed over to her and he shook his head deciding to call it a day as he headed to the stands where Cyra was waiting for him with a towel and a glass of water.

"I can see that isn't going as well as you'd hoped." Rime shook his head, he thought with being royalty the Empress would have at least had basic fighting skills but she had none whatsoever and Rime wondered what that was about. "Anyway we need to go to the Emperor and discuss her and the Princess's training, the Princess is a fast learner when it comes to magic but I fear she might have the same problem as the Empress when it comes to the combat area."

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"Yeah I think since she's small and doesn't have you aptitude for combat we should just have her learn some exercises that would just help with the flow of her energy and strengthening her muscles so when she does start training it won't be a tragic mess." Cyra nodded and went over to the Princess taking her hand and leading her out of the stands with her guards and attendants not too far behind."

Rime went back over to the Empress and escorted her out of the training area "I need to clean up myself and then make a trip to the Grand Temple, a few children have been born to the Royal family and they asked for my presence at the blessing."

"I don't think you should go my lady." One of her attendants spoke up drawing everyone's attention "They could just be inviting you to gloat in your face, because you have not yet had a child by the Emperor.

"I think that's exactly why you should go, let them gloat and you can show them that at the end of the day you are the Empress and there is nothing they can do to change that." Rime ignored the stares as he went on "You not having a child as yet does not make you less of an empress, it doesn't make you less of a woman or any of the bad things these people wish to say about you. No it makes you intelligent because you and your husband know that you are not yet ready to have a child and you're not rushing it just because of some nosy rats that claim they're better than you, knowing that they are not."

The Empress smiled and rose her head just a little feeling happy that someone understood why her and the Emperor had not had a child as yet. They finally made their way to the part of the Palace that held all the rooms and Rime waited for the Empress to safely enter her room before he vanished from the spot appearing in the showers for the training area. He stripped down from his training clothes and took a quick shower.

He dried down his skin and hair before he oiled and brushed through it, he got dressed quickly and pulled on his cloak before he headed out the shower area. He appeared at the head of the hall that lead to the Emperor and Empresses room, he watched as Cyra came down the hall with Princess Jenirus and her guards. He could hear their conversation as they got closer "Are you sure I can go with the Empress, uncle told me that little girls shouldn't be involved in things like this."

"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard, those babies are your cousins, so that makes you family and family should always attend things like this, don't listen to your uncle he seems quite foolish." Cyra spoke with a shake of her head and Rime smiled at the way she talked even though she was still six.

"Little Princess I think you should listen to your uncle, he is older than this girl so he must know what he is talking about."

"No one asked you anything so shut your mouth, you're not allowed to talk to my friends like that because she's smarter than all the adults combined." The Princess said stubbornly and Rime chuckled at their antics even though something was starting to bother him with the way the two attendants were acting, but he decided to just keep an eye on them for the time being.

The Empress soon came out of her room decked out in a long gold gown that had a train flowing behind her, her hair was pulled into an elegant bun and her crown was sitting on top of her head. Rime looked to see she and the Princess were dressed similarly except the bottom of the princess's dress was like a long tutu and her blonde hair was flowing down in massive curls with her tiara sitting on top.

Everyone greeted each other and then headed down the way they stopped at the Emperors office, the Emperor sat behind his desk writing away on a parchment. He looked up when he heard the Empress and Princess enter and smiled at them, he got up from his desk and went over hugging each of them. "Have a safe trip and make sure you stay with Rime and Cyra so in case of anything they can get you out of there, I will not lose the two of you, okay?"

The Empress nodded and kissed the Emperor softly before allowing him to palace a kiss on the princess's head and then they were off. They headed down the halls and soon came to the entrance of the palace, where all the guards that stood there bowed to them, the doors open and just before they walked through two gold cloaks were placed on the shoulders of the Empress and Princess. They walked out to the Palace grounds where three carriages sat in wait for them.

Rime helped the Empress and Princess into the carriage and then got Cyra in before jumping in himself and closing the door behind him not allowing anyone else to enter. There were a few objections but there was nothing they could do as the servants made their way to the other carriages that held the guards. The Empress stared at Rime questioning lee and he just smiled. The Carriage drivers commanded the horses to pull the carriages, pulling them through the gate and onto the main road.